G-Bone420

This did indeed help, I was doing the same thing but not thinking to crop into the image with the mask! Much appreciated!

Thanks for the response, MEB, I'm sure I'm not the only person who'd appreciate the function! In order to do this with layer masks, I'd have to create an inverted box around it, then feather that edge, then use that as a layer mask, right?

Thanks for the lightning response here! This doesn't seem to be softening the edge of the image but is adding an internal shadow to it. I'm trying to soften the super hard digital edge but don't know enough about AD to do so 🤔

Hiya, I'm trying to soften the edge of an image so it fits better with a background – applying a gaussian blur seems to apply the blur to the whole image, but I just want to feather the edge a little bit. In Adobe Illustrator, there's a layer effect that you can apply to feather edges, but I can't see a similar function in Designer – is it possible?

Thanks for your help @lepr & @GarryP – I really appreciate it! (Would have replied sooner but I got a block message for having posted too many times? 🤷‍♂️)

Haha, sorry! I'd half responded and then got carried away with the other method aaaaaaand on closer look it also seems I didn't read the end of your post 🤦‍♂️ What export formats would this create issues for? I.e, if I'm trying to export to PDF?

I've discovered that this is indeed possible – you create a vector shape, create a clipping mask with it, then set the blend mode to Erase in order to "cut out" the part that you want 😀

Oh! It IS possible with a vector – you have to set the blend mode to Erase! 🕺 Screen Recording 2023-08-13 at 09.53.49.mov

Amazing! This is exactly what I wanted! I need to have text layers editable so that clients can request changes so really didn't want to have to rasterise the text layer each time, or have to create a bunch of unnecessary layers. Just a shame it's not possible to use vectors for masking because I often need to re-edit masks and having to paint them back in is a bit of a pain. But so it goes 🤷‍♂️ Thanks so much for this, Garry!

Hi there, I've been trying to mask a text layer so that a portion of an image underneath shows through the text (i.e., the portion of text gets 'hidden'/masked). Here's my original thread – I've managed to get the end result I wanted but in a way that's quite a bad workflow – especially for more complex projects. It seems that vectors can only clip while masks can only be pixels, would it be possible to add a feature for masking using vector shapes? It seems that a vector mask would just be an inverted clip (i.e., "show everything other than this vector shape") so I'm surprised it's not already a feature (unless it is and I'm missing something 😅). In Adobe Illustrator, you can easily create Opacity Masks, drop vector objects into them, and then move the vector objects around at will and non-destructively. Thanks, George

Vector masks should be easy considering vector clips and pixel masks already exist, don't you think? A vector mask is just an inverted vector clip, so this seems odd! Is there anywhere I can suggest this as a feature for an update? 🙂

So it seems that this is possible, but only with a pixel-based mask in Pixel persona! You create a layer mask for the text layer, hop into pixel persona, and paint in black over the parts you want to hide. Is there a way to do this with vectors? Being able to paint is grand, but vectors often work a lot better for my workflow and I usually need to be able to easily re-edit them 😄 Thanks, George

Blue more like turquoise but not so relevant 😆

Ah, yeah the blue background is part of the image with the doughnut! So I'd then need to cut the doughnut out of the background image, and then put it above the text layer. Resulting in three layers when, as far as I understand it, I should only need two: a background image, and a text layer with a part hidden by a clipping mask. I've made a vector shape in the shape of the doughnut, and all I want to do is use that shape to hide part of the text layer: But when I try to do so: I end up with this: So it seems to me that I must be creating a mask wrong somehow 🤷‍♂️

Hi there, I've just moved to Affinity from Illustrator and I'm trying to get used to how clipping masks are created in AD. I'm not sure if I'm getting the right terminology. I have a picture and I want to mask a section of text around an object in the picture: In Illustrator, you can create a vector object and then use that object to hide a certain part of something else. When I do so in AD, I get this: It's doing what I want, but for some reason is still showing the fill colour of the object that's supposed to be masking. Masking in Illustrator is quite intuitive (or, at least, I've become really accustomed to it) — You make a clipping mask, black objects within that mask hide and white objects reveal. So I can't really get my head around how this is working. I've also managed to actually do what I want to do by: – Creating a rectangle – Subtracting the doughnut vector from the rectangle – Using that as a clipping mask for the text layer But this is such a roundabout way that I must be missing something. Can anyone please advise?